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Castro Says Bush Plotting to Kill Him
Associated Press
| January 30, 2004
| ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Posted on 01/30/2004 1:29:41 PM PST by HAL9000
HAVANA - Cuban President Fidel Castro accused President Bush on Friday of plotting with Miami exiles to kill him as part of his administration's hardening policies against the communist island.
The Cuban leader didn't back up his accusations with details. His comments came at the end of a 5 1/2-hour speech that began Thursday night and continued into early Friday at the close of a conference bringing together activists across the region who oppose the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
"We know that Mr. Bush has committed himself to the mafia ... to assassinate me," the Cuban president said, using the term commonly employed here to describe anti-Castro Cuban Americans.
Castro has accused past U.S. administrations of seeking to assassinate him, and during his early years in power there were numerous documented cases of U.S.-sponsored attempts on his life.
The assassination of foreign leaders as U.S. policy was later banned in 1976 by an executive order signed by then-President Gerald Ford and reinforced by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
Castro also criticized the Bush administration's Commission for a Free Cuba - a panel set up in October and headed by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
When the United States announced creation of the commission, Powell suggested that the goal is not to ease Castro out but to plan a strategy for Cuba once the 77-year-old leader is no longer in power.
"I can die a natural death or I can die a planned death," Castro said. "It really doesn't matter to me how I die, but I will surely die fighting."
Earlier in his speech, Castro called on the more than 1,000 activists from across the Americas gathered here to work against the U.S.-backed free trade pact, which he said will only further impoverish their nations.
The Bush administration has progressively hardened its policies toward the island. Cuban authorities charge the strategy is aimed at wooing voters in Florida, home to most of the Cuban-American exiles living in the United States.
For more than four decades, the two countries have been without diplomatic ties and a U.S. trade embargo against the island makes most trade between the nations impossible, except for sales of farm products.
TOPICS: Cuba; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: assassination; bush43; castro; cuba; letshopeso
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1
posted on
01/30/2004 1:29:42 PM PST
by
HAL9000
To: HAL9000
5-1/2 hour speech? By the time he sat down, I'm sure everyone in the audience was plotting to kill him.
To: HAL9000
Hehehe. The Whitehouse should pointedly NOT respond to this accusation!
3
posted on
01/30/2004 1:32:18 PM PST
by
Stultis
To: HAL9000
Will that killer just friggin DIE already?!
4
posted on
01/30/2004 1:32:43 PM PST
by
KantianBurke
(Principles, not blind loyalty)
To: HAL9000
To me, this is a sign he is ready to kick the bucket. Castro is saying this so when he assumes room temperature the person to take over his office can simply continue the America bashing.
5
posted on
01/30/2004 1:33:11 PM PST
by
Andyman
To: Andyman
Maybe he is suffering from Alzheimers and is having "Kennedy" flashbacks!
To: Califelephant
I think he is beginning to pick up on the hopes and prayers of the Cuban people.
7
posted on
01/30/2004 1:37:04 PM PST
by
CROSSHIGHWAYMAN
(I don't believe anything a Democrat says. Bill Clinton set the standard!)
To: HAL9000
Given our present capabilities, if we wanted him dead, he would be; he isn't exactly hard to find. I wonder how much longer we're going to have to put up with him, and if there will be a rapprochement between the U.S> and Cuba when he's gone.
To: KantianBurke
One day that scourge on the Western hempishere will leave power and Cuba will benefit greatly. I am hoping it happens on President Bush's watch.
9
posted on
01/30/2004 1:39:22 PM PST
by
RKB-AFG
To: HAL9000
Little Castro freaking about Bush?
I think that is called paranoid megalomania.
10
posted on
01/30/2004 1:40:37 PM PST
by
American in Israel
(A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
To: HAL9000
This just in: In support of terror leader Castro
CBS's Rather has flown to Cuba to be with his hero and "leader"
whom he says he and CBS will back
whether the "leader is right wrong", and no matter his "frequency".
11
posted on
01/30/2004 1:40:43 PM PST
by
Diogenesis
(If you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us)
To: HAL9000
"It really doesn't matter to me how I die, but I will surely die fighting."
Didn't Saddam say the same thing?
To: HAL9000
Yet another reason to vote for Bush!
13
posted on
01/30/2004 1:43:51 PM PST
by
WinOne4TheGipper
(Appease "my-way-or-the-highway" conservatives. Build new roads.)
To: HAL9000
Huh.
If Bush were plotting to kill him, he would already be dead, and the poor Cubans wouldn't have to listen to this drivel.
This is a man who has long outlived his usefulness. I guess the Lord doesn't want him and he's too mean for hell, as my granddaddy used to say.
14
posted on
01/30/2004 1:45:24 PM PST
by
AnAmericanMother
(. . . sed, ut scis, quis homines huiusmodi intellegere potest?. . .)
To: HAL9000
Castro has third stage dementia. He's always been delusional, now he's senile as well. At 135 years old, a spicy sandwich could kill Castro. He would already be in hell if the President wanted him dead - not standing at a podium yapping.
15
posted on
01/30/2004 1:47:51 PM PST
by
Jaysun
(Don't Sweat the Petty Stuff, and Don't Pet the Sweaty Stuff.)
To: HAL9000
Fidel Castro accused President Bush on Friday of plotting with Miami exiles to kill him...Now there's an idea.
16
posted on
01/30/2004 1:50:37 PM PST
by
JesseHousman
(Execute Mumia Abu-Jamal)
To: HAL9000
Bush is killing Castro with neglect..
17
posted on
01/30/2004 1:53:22 PM PST
by
hosepipe
To: HAL9000
"I can die a natural death or I can die a planned death," Castro said. "It really doesn't matter to me how I die, but I will surely die fighting." Stick a fork in him. He's done.
18
posted on
01/30/2004 1:55:26 PM PST
by
E. Pluribus Unum
(Drug prohibition laws help fund terrorism.)
To: HAL9000
Really?
How cool is this!
No prescription meds for Fidel!
19
posted on
01/30/2004 1:56:45 PM PST
by
Kay Soze
(If Ted kennedy's 100B dollar health care plan passes both houses will "W" veto it?)
To: Califelephant
He hardly ever gives a speech less than four hours. As senile as he apparently is, I'm surprised they got off that easy. One of the advantages of having a captive audience.
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